Table of Contents

Chapter One: First Meditations

Chapter Two: Procession of the Great Ancestry: Traditions Jazz and Religious

Chapter Three: Shadows on a Wall: Jazz Narrates American Religions

Chapter Four: Urban Magic: Jazz Communitarianism

Chapter Five: The Magic of Juju: Improvising Ritual

Chapter Six: The Tao of Mad Phat: Jazz Meditation and Mysticism

Chapter Seven: Other Planes of There: Jazz Cosmologies and Harmonialism

Chapter Eight: Spirits Rejoice! Beyond "Religion"

Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Jason C. Bivins is Professor of Religious Studies at North Carolina State University and is an accomplished jazz guitarist.

Reviews

"Biven's sweeping study of jazz/religion takes a remarkably wide scope built up from broad definitions... By posing such a broad range of engaging questions, Bivens makes tremendous contributions to jazz studies." -- Maria Guarino, Jazz and Culture
"Bivins lets taste as well as conscience be his guide. He doesn't just address the traditional canon, with the sound and signifying of Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts, Mary Lou Williams' Jazz Mass and the Saturday-night blues/Sunday-morning gospel dichotomy in myriad hard-bop and soul-jazz LPs. Rather, he interviews a swath of contemporary artists, from veterans of the New Thing to many 21st-century seekers." --Bradley Bambarger, Downbeat
"[A] fascinating look into the religious and spiritual elements of the jazz life, a subject long talked about but until now with little clarity. Bivins is uniquely qualified to speak about jazz and its place in the spiritual life of America. To those who have wondered how a music can be so involving and meaningful to its musicians and fans, this book provides an answer."--John Szwed, author of Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra
"[A] well-researched, meticulously annotated achievement. Jason Bivins elucidates the connection of jazz improvised music and religion and spirituality in a comprehensive way. Every manifestation of this connection in this musical art form is presented here. The book is more than that. It is-like William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience-a book of philosophy, which causes the reader to understand and feel, reaching the spiritual center
within."--Connie Crothers, Improvising pianist, www.conniecrothers.net
"Jason Bivins has produced an intellectual tour de force, a prodigious work of far-flung research, impassioned analysis, and incandescent prose. By juxtaposing religion and jazz, Bivins challenges us to get our minds around two forms of social practice that continually press against and escape the bonds of language. This is an ecstatic book in every sense of the word."--David W. Stowe, author of How Sweet the Sound: Music in the Spiritual Lives of
Americans
"Spirits Rejoice! is not a historical narrative of jazz but instead reads like what jazz music is-structured but also loose, impromptu, and improvised. This passionate, intellectually stimulating analysis of jazz and the influence of religion on musicians sets a precedent for work to follow."--J. Foreman, Tarrant County College
"Given the century of jazz and religion intersecting, it's past time that we had this sort of questioning look into these spiritual entanglements, and Bivens nails what can't quite be nailed down."--PopMatters